FINNISH rolling stock company Junskalusto Oy has exercised an option under a contract originally awarded to Stadler in 2006 for nine new Flirt trains worth Euros 54m. The trains will be introduced on a line being built to serve Helsinki Airport which is due to open in 2014.

PLANS have been unveiled for a network of four light rail lines totalling 214km serving an area to the south of Moscow. The Southern Chord network will extend the reach of the Moscow metro and connect the airports of Domodedovo to the south and Vnukovo to the west.

The fatal crash between two high-speed trains on July 23 on a viaduct near Wenzhou on the Ningbo - Xiamen line, in which 40 people died and 191 were injured, has had major repercussions for railway operations and safety in China. With the results of the investigation into the accident yet to be announced, David Briginshaw examines the chain of events that followed.

THE first of eight 200km/h diesel trains being supplied by CAF, Spain, under a Euros 105m contract awarded by Saudi Railways Organisation in 2008, has started test running on the Velim test track in the Czech Republic. Testing will continue until the end of the year.

THE first test train arrived at the new station beneath Berlin Brandenburg Airport, itself still under construction, on August 27. The new station and connections to the existing rail network are on schedule for completion by the end of October. However, trains will not start running to the airport until it opens on June 3 2012, when it will replace the existing airport at Tegel.

BULGARIA's transport minister, Mr Ivaylo Moskovski, says that the freight division of BDZ, Bulgaria's national train operator, could be privatised within the next six months. This would pave the way for the World Bank to grant a Lev 460m ($US 338m) loan to BDZ and a further Lev 160m loan to the National Railway Infrastructure Company (NRIC).

A Euros 175m plan is being drawn up by Irish Rail (IE) to increase the proportion of lines passed for 160km/h operation. The plan will run from 2012 to 2016 and will cut journey times significantly from Dublin to the main cities in western and southern Ireland.